BEIJING, July 8
(Reuters) - China's Inner Mongolia
region plans to speed up
resettlement of nomads from their
traditional grasslands to fixed
homes in towns, as part of a
conservation programme, a top
official said on Thursday.

The
government will also increase
payouts to herders who settle down,
said Liu Xinle, deputy governor of
the northwestern region. Inner
Mongolia is fighting severe
desertification blamed in large part
on over-grazing of the rolling
steppes.

"We
will step up our conservation
efforts," Liu told a news conference
on government plans to boost
development in poorer western parts
of China.

"We aim
to gradually achieve the natural
regeneration of the environment on
the grasslands through moving people
to urban areas, moving animals to
designated grazing areas, and moving
industry and business into
industrial zones," he added.

The
government will use more
interventionist methods in areas
where natural regeneration is a
challenge, he added.

Opponents of the government's plans
say herders who have grazed the
grasslands for centuries are key to
solving the problem, and should not
be blamed for spreading deserts.

Studies
by Nobel prize winning economist
Elinor Ostrom showed that when China
imposed agricultural collectives on
grassland areas that were formerly
home to nomadic peoples who moved
herds with the seasons, they became
degraded.

Privatisation in the decades since
China decided to follow a path of
"reform and opening up" caused
further damage.

China
says it is improving environmental
stewardship constantly and massive
changes in society and living
standards mean many Mongolian nomads
need to settle down.

Over a
quarter of China's land area was
covered by desert in 2007, and a
nationwide survey published the next
year found that serious erosion is
scouring over a third of the
country, putting its crops and water
supply at risk.

"We
will put in place conservation
compensation mechanisms, and
intensify permanent and temporary
bans on grazing," Liu said.

Rights
groups claim the government has
failed to provide Mongolian herders
with suitable means of living after
moving them to settled homes. Liu
said the government would boost
payouts.

"We will also
increase the scale of subsidies to
herders in the areas of the (grazing
restriction) programmes, and extend
the time-frame for the issuance of
such subsidies." (Editing by Jeremy
Laurence)